VanAmerongen committed to meeting regularly with the coalition, according to Levy and to Susman of Central Park Gardens, who were at the March 30 session. In the interview with DHCR’s Irizarry, the spokesman said the division is "committed to continuing this dialogue."
-- Mayor Bloomberg last month signed into law City Council bills that make additional Mitchell-Lama buildings eligible for a tax benefit program. Those bills offer incentives for more developments to stay in Mitchell-Lama, since both say that when Mitchell-Lama owners take the J-51 tax benefit, they must keep their buildings in Mitchell-Lama for another 15 years.
Administered by HPD, the J-51 program gives property tax abatements to building owners who fix roofs, elevators or other major building parts.
The J-51 program “provides a way for us to preserve affordability by keeping buildings in the Mitchell-Lama program,” said Coleman, the HPD spokesman.
One bill changes the law so that Mitchell-Lama developments getting government rehabilitation loans can take part in J-51. Until now, only those Mitchell-Lama developments getting privately financed loans were eligible. Coleman didn't have an estimate of how many apartments that law will affect.
The other city law abolishes the cap for the assessed value on Mitchell-Lama cooperatives that can get J-51. Previously, it was set at $40,000 per co-op apartment. There are about 4,000 Mitchell-Lama co-ops with assessed values over $40,000, according to HPD, and those are just the Mitchell-Lama co-ops supervised by HPD. (Either HPD or DHCR can be the supervisory agency for a Mitchell-Lama building, whether co-op or rental).
-- Mayor Bloomberg vetoed it, then refused to enforce it after City Council passed it in an override. Now the State Supreme Court has struck down Local Law 79, which said that tenants in a Mitchell-Lama building had the first right of refusal if the owner tried to sell the building. City Council approved the law in 2005. But the city administration didn't carry it out because "we judged that the law was illegal," according to HPD's Coleman.
The administration also disagreed with the law from a property rights standpoint, saying any laws that hold back owners from selling their buildings interfere with those rights. "The courts are not going to let a law like that legally stand," said Coleman.
"The loss of the Mitchell-Lama housing is a concern but" preventing building sales isn't right, Coleman said.
Asked for other means of preserving of Mitchell-Lama housing, Coleman said HPD "would hope that the owner would want to take advantage of one of our programs," such as the city's expanded J-51 tax break.
As for state legislation that does what Local Law 79 aimed to do, Assemblyman Bing said "it would be something that I would look to potentially introduce, if it hasn't been done already."
Giving tenants the first right of refusal to buy their buildings "is a concept that I support," said Bing. "The ruling did bring into focus [that] the city has little, has too little control over affordable housing." That's why efforts should be made at the state level, he added.
